Ayanokoji's Silent Vote

The number had no name attached.

The text had only one sentence.

Gu Heng stared at the lit screen for two seconds, his thumb hovering over the delete key without pressing down.

He did not scroll any further. He simply placed his phone face down on the desk.

Before the edge of the phone had even settled against the desktop, Ayanokoji strolled in through the back door.

His steps were as even as always.

As if nothing had happened.

Even the shadow falling beside the desk seemed a beat slower.

"What is it?" Horikita noticed Gu Heng's knuckles resting against the edge of his notebook.

"Nothing." Gu Heng pushed the notebook back, his fingertips brushing over the edge of its cover. "I just confirmed something."

"What?"

"Someone has already started treating what we're doing as something real."

Horikita's gaze paused on the face-down phone for a moment before dropping back to the notebook.

Her fingertips pressed against the edge of the page, and she swallowed the question.

"What are you planning to do about those two boys this afternoon?"

"You handle it according to the rules," Gu Heng said. "Suppress them once, then see if they still dare keep stirring things up."

"That's all?"

"What else?" Gu Heng gripped the corner of the notebook with his knuckles. "We've only just grown teeth. Are we supposed to draw blood on the first bite?"

Horikita's hand pressing down on the paper paused.

Then she nodded.

Horikita pulled the notebook half an inch closer to herself.

Her palm remained pressed against the edge of the page for a long while.

During the afternoon homeroom, Horikita stood beside the podium with the notebook spread open at the edge of the teacher's desk. She did not waste a single word.

The spine faced the entire class. Everyone, no matter which row they sat in, could see those lines.

"This morning, Sudo received one warning."

"The two people in the back row who provoked others and stirred things up will each receive one mark."

"From now on, anyone who thinks the class rules are just for show can keep testing them."

It was brief.

And not gentle in the slightest.

The notebook lay there as a breeze from the window lightly lifted a page before it settled back down.

No one in the classroom responded.

Even the few who loved to egg people on merely lowered their heads and pretended not to hear.

Sudo sat in the back row with his elbow pressed against the desk, his shoulders and back stiff.

But he did not argue again.

His back teeth were clenched tight, yet in the end, he forcibly swallowed that breath of anger.

Gu Heng sat in his usual seat, listening while the tip of his pen shifted slightly toward the window side.

Ayanokoji was the same as usual, his textbook open before him. His finger lightly tapped the desk once, then stopped.

Gu Heng did not turn around, but the tip of his pen paused, leaving a tiny ink blot on the paper.

After homeroom ended, the crowd dispersed from between the desks.

Gu Heng had just been about to put away his notebook when another shadow appeared beside him.

It fell across the notebook's cover first.

Ayanokoji.

"You didn't reply?" His tone was casual.

Gu Heng set the notebook back down on the desk.

"So it was you."

"Not hard to guess, was it?"

"No." Gu Heng closed the notebook. "I just didn't expect you to specifically send that message."

Ayanokoji sat down at the desk in front of him, his movements natural.

His gaze paused on the notebook cover for half a second, but he did not reach out to touch it.

"What happened today was different from before," he said.

"How was it different?"

"Before, you were the one establishing it." Ayanokoji rested a hand on the back of the chair in front of him. "Starting today, it'll bite people on its own."

Gu Heng gripped the edge of the notebook, his thumb slowly pressing along the cover.

"So you texted me to congratulate me?" he asked.

"More like a reminder."

"A reminder about what?"

"Everything you do from now on will be more easily magnified."

Ayanokoji's tone remained flat.

"Once rules grow teeth, people outside will watch to see how they bite."

"The people inside will also watch to see whether they bite fairly."

Gu Heng did not answer immediately. His thumb pressed down harder, slowly lifting the corner of the notebook.

"I know." Gu Heng pulled the notebook half an inch closer, its cover scraping against the desk with a short sound.

"You know, but you might not think through every consequence first every time."

Gu Heng lifted his eyelids slightly, but his hand gripping the cover did not loosen.

"You're talking a lot today."

"Maybe because I really did cast a vote this time," Ayanokoji said.

"A silent vote?"

"Something like that."

The corner of Gu Heng's mouth suddenly curved upward slightly.

"Then your vote is pretty valuable."

"Not really." Ayanokoji said, "I just temporarily agree that what you're doing now works better than Horikita forcing things through by herself."

"And if you stop agreeing someday, you'll take that vote back whenever you want?"

"Of course."

"Then you didn't come all this way just to repeat that, did you?" he asked.

"No." Ayanokoji pushed the chair back slightly.

Its legs made a faint sound against the floor.

"There's something you should know."

"What?"

"Manabu Horikita has noticed."

Gu Heng tapped the notebook cover once, the sound crisper than before.

"Why tell me?"

Ayanokoji did not answer immediately.

His gaze passed over the notebook cover before returning to Gu Heng's face.

"If you still want to stay as cleanly hidden as you did the past few weeks, it's already too late."

His tone remained even.

"As for Class C..."

Ayanokoji paused for half a beat.

"They won't need me to remind them."

Gu Heng did not respond right away. He merely pressed his tongue against his back teeth.

Someone ran past outside in the hallway, their footsteps passing in an instant.

"Is that advice or a notice?" Gu Heng asked.

"Experience."

After saying that, Ayanokoji lightly tapped the back of the chair in front of him once with his finger, then stopped.

Gu Heng tapped the notebook cover again. The corner of his mouth lowered before lifting slightly.

"Sometimes, you're worse at talking than I am."

"Maybe it's because I've spent too much time with you."

"That was a fast way to shift the blame."

Ayanokoji's lips moved very slightly, the curve so faint that it barely seemed to form.

"So?" he asked. "Are you planning to keep Horikita in front while you support her from behind?"

"I am," Gu Heng said. "But I won't keep pretending I don't exist." He raised a hand and closed the notebook in one decisive motion.

"That's enough."

"You set the bar that low for me?"

"It's not low." Ayanokoji stood up. "It's because you were never suited to hiding forever."

"Why?"

"You push results forward too much."

Ayanokoji slung his bag over one shoulder. "People like that always leave clear traces in the end."

Gu Heng did not argue. He only leaned back against his chair, the back of his fingers brushing across the notebook cover with a short sound before he withdrew his hand.

"Got it." Gu Heng lightly patted the notebook cover.

"Then that's fine."

After saying that, Ayanokoji turned and walked back.

He took two steps, then stopped again.

"Oh, right."

"Yeah?"

"You should delete that text." His tone was calm. "There's no point keeping it."

"Are you afraid I'll use it to threaten you?"

"No."

Ayanokoji stopped in the aisle. "I'm afraid you'll forget to delete it one day."

"If someone else sees it, you'll have one more thing to explain."

After saying that, he really did leave.

Only after his footsteps returned to the row by the window did Gu Heng take out his phone.

The text was still there on the screen.

Only one sentence.

"Your class is finally starting to look like something."

Gu Heng stared at the line for two seconds. His thumb pressed down on the delete key, then slowly loosened.

The screen's light illuminated a small patch of his fingertip.

In the end, he turned off the screen without deleting it.

When he placed the phone face down on the desk, it made a soft, muffled sound.

At the end of the day, Hirata had just been about to pack up when he noticed Gu Heng had pushed the notebook slightly toward him.

The notebook slid across the desk and stopped in front of the hand he had been reaching toward his bag with.

"What does this mean?"

"You keep it," Gu Heng said.

"Me?"

"Yes." Gu Heng pushed the notebook to his hand. "From now on, it won't just be Horikita keeping records. You should keep an eye on things too."

Hirata's hand froze above his bag.

"Isn't this too fast?"

"It has to be fast if we want to make it in time," Gu Heng said. "Before the uninhabited island, Class D needs to get used to one thing first."

"What?"

"The rules aren't just one person's notebook." Gu Heng pushed the notebook firmly in front of him. "They're something the whole class has to answer for together."

Hirata held the not-too-thick notebook in his palm. He paused over the cover for several seconds, and his breathing grew heavier with it.

He did not put it into his bag right away. Instead, he first flipped to a blank page and made sure it was clean before closing it.

He accepted the notebook. When he looked up, his voice was steadier than before.

"All right."

"Then I'll keep track."

Gu Heng nodded and said no more.

Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened, and the shadow of the school building stretched long.

The voices in Class D's classroom were quieter than they had been in recent days.

People still spoke in low voices now and then, but whenever someone's voice rose, someone nearby would tap them first with a chair leg.

The faint rustle of pages whenever the notebook was opened restrained people faster than any lecture could.

When most people had left, a finely folded note had somehow appeared at the corner of Gu Heng's desk.

It was tucked between his textbook and the edge of the desk, with only half a corner exposed, as though someone had slipped it in while the crowd was dispersing.

Gu Heng pulled it out, pressing his palm over the crease before unfolding it.

There was only one sentence on the first line.

"I can change that name now."

The second line was even shorter.

"Seven tonight. The usual place. Third price."

Gu Heng's gaze paused on "third price."

The edge of the paper curled slightly under his fingers, then slowly settled flat against the desk.

At the bottom, there seemed to be an extra line added at the last minute.

"Also, Ryuuen has started asking who's backing the face Class D put out front."

Gu Heng placed the note beside the notebook and lightly pressed its edge with his thumb.

Several pages of newly recorded names were still tucked beneath the notebook's cover.

And this note lay right beside them.